Creative Abstract:
One of key tasks in the effort to humanize ourselves and others lies within our capacity to articulate our experiences, that is to name them.
Padrig O’Tauma wrote: “To name something is part of the project of being human.”
The simple act of articulating and naming the aspects of our experience which are alien to us is inherently humanizing.
Why?
Because it relocates the elusive, obscure, enigmatic aspects of ourselves into language and frameworks for possible comprehension.
Such comprehension immediately strips them of their power to isolate and control us and creates the possibility for curiosity, compassion, solidarity, understanding, community, and integration.
Henri Nouwen wrote:
The man who can articulate the movements of his inner world, who can give names to his varied experiences, need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent [love] from entering.
This next iteration of SO VERY HUMAN seeks to explore the power of such articulation, naming, labeling, and language in our individual and collective humanizing effort.
The medium highlights this in both literal and metaphorical ways.
Literally speaking – it aims to uncover, identify, and name the underlying universality in places of obscurity within the urban environment and to physically label them and their messages, whether explicit or implicit, as hum. To do so necessitates and employs empathy as a means to acknowledge the messages of our environment and to remain open to the possibility that their messages are a mirror – something which reflects back to us our own humanity or the humanity of others. In invites us to engage, to shift our perspective, to participate in the environment we are in – and to witness ourselves by witnessing our world.
Metaphorically speaking – it aims to be an invitation for all of us to move through our inner obscurity and to compassionately witness and name the humanity therein.
Process > Product
Here again the creative process here is much more important/interesting to me than the creative artifact or product or end result.
This is because the creative process here requires a kind of openness, attentiveness, and curiosity about my physical environment and its messages. Rather than just walking to a cafe or to my next appointment with my head down, blocking out my world, and hastily fixated on the point of “arrival” – this project necessitates a mindful slowing down, a more careful observation of the world already always transpiring around me, and an openness to the humanity that is being reflected to me even in the most unsuspecting or surprising places.
To me this creative process is metaphorical of what is required of life: a willingness to slow down and observe our inner experience, to intentionally be with it more mindfully, and to be curious about what it is revealing to us – perhaps suggesting to us that we more human than we ever could’ve imagined.
This work holds promise not only for ourself, but also for those around us.
Henri continues:
This articulation, I believe, is the basis for a spiritual leadership of the future, because only he who is able to articulate his own experiences can offer himself to others as a source of clarification.
“We all do sometimes.”
“tempting”
SO VERY HUMAN 